Cubism has been a major project for our Year 8 pupils in their art lessons this term.
Their starting point was still-life drawings, and the project began with lots of observational drawing. The Year 8’s developed their skills through drawing from a range of everyday objects, learning how to use compressed charcoal and chalk to create tonal effects in their drawings.
Pupils next learnt about how Cubists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque fragmented still-life paintings and created compositions using different viewpoints within one image.
They then moved on to create their own complex compositions, formed by overlapping everyday vessels such as vases, cups and glasses. They used carbon paper to create these overlapping drawings on one sheet of paper. Powdered graphite and a range of graphite pencils were used to add contrasting tones to their Cubist inspired drawings.
Next, year 8 went on to further investigate how images can be fragmented. They created semi-abstract compositions as they developed designs for their Cubist inspired 3D Constructions. This time, musical instruments were the subject matter. Lots of great visual imagery was found in the shapes of guitars, piano keyboards, violins, musical notes and other shapes. Pupils mostly worked in pairs to develop their ideas and then translated these into large scale built up structures. There was a super working atmosphere as they worked with craft knives and hot glue guns, cardboard and paint to form their 3D outcomes. The colour palette was kept quite neutral with black and white, browns and golds being used, so as to draw the viewer’s attention to the shapes and forms in their artwork.
The result is a dramatic display in our main school foyer, which pupils throughout the school have had the chance to see as they walk by.
